Doors that don’t want to open any further, a hole in the canteen floor, mold in the changing rooms and holes in the playing field. The condition of the accommodation of baseball and softball club The Pioneers in Assen leaves much to be desired. Something must be done quickly, says chairman Carina van der Velde, otherwise she fears that people will leave the club.
A tour of the grounds of the baseball and softball club quickly shows what the problem is. “The field is nice and bumpy,” says Van der Velde as she stands at the edge of the field in the dug out. “The gravel is now ready for a bit of replacement and filling, so to speak. It is quite bumpy now, but as the season progresses, there will be even more holes in it.”
The field is mossy and bumpy. Every now and then the club is visited by a badger that digs holes in the field. It doesn’t stop there. Van der Velde: “Last season we saw several storks carrying the grubs [larven van kevers] pick out. Then they dig into the ground and holes appear.”
Van der Velde’s entire family plays for The Pioneers. When her children run across the field, she tells them to be careful. “They have to look so closely. If a ball lands exactly on a bump or hole, the ball flies up. You just have to be careful.”
The canteen and changing rooms also need to be replaced. The changing rooms are in a separate container-like building with mold on the ceiling. In the canteen, which is also a kind of container, the holes are on the outside of the building as well as on the floor inside. “You can see it here: you fall completely through,” says Van der Velde as she places her foot on the visibly weak spot in the floor. “It only gets worse here. Someone fell through here,” she says as she picks up an extra plate from the ground.
The canteen is closed because Van der Velde no longer thinks it is safe. As a result, the club no longer receives any income from canteen sales. The General Members Meeting was held at the dog club a little further away. Other training activities and courses have also been held in other places, which cost extra money.
“It makes me a bit sad,” says the chairman. “You see the deposits and mold everywhere. We can clean all we want at the beginning of each season, but it comes back every time, no matter what we do. Your health is at risk, but it is also safety that is at stake.”
According to Van der Velde, discussions with the municipality of Assen about the accommodation yielded little. “I think we have been discussing the accommodation for two years, but there has been no progress. And if there is progress, it means that we will have to increase the membership fee 10 times to be able to pay for everything. That is not feasible. We are a small sports club, but a very nice one.”
In the meantime, the Plop City Party in Assen has asked written questions to the Mayor and Aldermen. A spokesperson for the municipality says that it cannot respond to the questions asked by RTV Drenthe before these written questions from the municipal council have been answered.
A new season is coming. Van der Velde does not know what this season will look like for the baseball and softball players in Assen. “The expectation? If the field gets that bad again so quickly, then I don’t know. And we can’t use the canteen, so we have no income from refreshments.”
The chairman hopes that games can continue as normal next season. “If we can’t play later because the fields are so bad again or are getting even worse… Yes, then I am afraid that people will leave.”
